ORGANIZATION UPDATE

Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE)

Ashley M. London is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of Bar Studies at

the

Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University and the current AASE president.

The Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE) was proud to celebrate its 10 th anniversary at the annual conference this May at Santa Clara University School of Law in Santa Clara, California. AASE is the only national non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the professional development of academic success educators, who work to ensure legal education is accessible to all students.

This year’s conference focused on one of the biggest changes facing law schools, students, and educators today — the NextGen bar examination. Promulgated by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), this new lawyer licensing exam is purportedly launching in 2026. If the exam measures both legal knowledge and skills “holistically through a mix of item formats,” as stated on the NCBE website, the work of both academic support and bar preparation professionals becomes even more critical for law schools. Always student-centered, these professionals serve on the frontlines of legal pedagogical and curricular reforms at law schools across the country and are the experts in the field who can help their law schools and students rise to meet this challenge.

AASE is committed to staying abreast of the developments with the NextGen exam. Its Bar Advocacy Committee, chaired by Professor Marsha Griggs of Saint Louis University School of Law, is working tirelessly to ensure the most up-to-date information and knowledge about NextGen is made available to its entire membership. In May 2023, the AASE Bar Advocacy Committee hosted a special moderated Q&A session with the NCBE, which focused on the rollout, scoring, and training for the NextGen Exam. The academic support community is uniquely positioned to help law schools transition to the new bar exam format.

In addition to conference programming, AASE’s unique partnership with AccessLex to provide AASE Faculty Scholarships to enhance the professional development of all academic support faculty and staff members continues to assist in producing compelling and relevant scholarship. Scholarship is the currency of the realm in legal academia, and by subsidizing the important contributions from ASP and bar preparation professionals, AccessLex helps elevate the importance of legal pedagogy as a study, as well as promote the career trajectory of the authors. As a result of this program, its mentoring component, and the scholarship produced by its recipients, a number of us have moved from non-tenured or staff positions at our law schools to the tenure track.

Moving into our next decade, I’d like to take a moment to encourage all ASP and bar preparation professionals to get to know us a little better. In spite of all of our successes over the past decade, we have yet more to accomplish. As an AASE founder, former president, and long-term member, Jamie Kleppetsch, Assistant Professor of Legal Practice at the DePaul University College of Law, noted in her May 3 Law School Academic Support blog post , “We have done a lot in our short life, but we still have more work to do.” Goals such as creating our own journal (an idea we have batted around since 2015) can only be realized if we work together and forge ahead with vision and combined strength.

Our Bi-Annual Diversity Conference will be held October 11-13, 2023, at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. AASE’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession and the legal academy has been a cornerstone of our existence. In fact, academic support is rooted in the efforts of law schools to diversify the profession. We continue to stand at the frontlines today. In the words of Russell McClain, former AASE president and now the Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Director for the Academic Achievement Program of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, in his post on the Law School Academic Support blog, “We are purveyors of growth mindset, bulwarks against stereotype threat, sowers of academic and social belonging, defenders from imposter syndrome, and catalysts of self-efficacy and high aspirations.”

As ASP and bar preparation professionals, we are used to being the ones providing support to our students and our institutions. AASE is an organization that supports us! We always need the fresh ideas and perspectives of new members on our committees such as our Assessment Committee, which produced a comprehensive survey of ASP and bar preparation programs, salaries, and more this year. There is a place for you at AASE. Looking forward to meeting you and working with you as we continue to grow this important academic discipline!

For more information about AASE, our conferences, and our committees, please visit our website